As compared to previous years, figures indicate a decline in death toll of foreign military personnel in Afghanistan in 2013. Contrarily, there has been an increase in the number of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) being killed in fight against Taliban and other insurgent groups. That is majorly because the ANSF has been handed full security responsibilities of the country and now it leads most of the military operations against militants.
Keeping in view the increase in death toll of ANSF, it is feared that their causalities will go on increasing as the NATO will move nearer to its plan for complete withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. High dying rate would definitely have its reverse impacts on the morale of Afghan soldiers and police. Nonetheless, giving life for defense of the country is what a soldiers promise on the first day of joining the military service.
At the same time as the casualty of ANSF increasing, there has been a significant increase in civilian casualties which adds to concerns of the people of Afghanistan. Based on the biannual report of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released on Wednesday, August 31, 2013, civilian casualties in Afghanistan rose by 23 percent during the first six months of the current year. UNAMA documented 1,319 civilian deaths, compared with 1,158 a year earlier. The report attributes 74 percent of civil casualties to fighters, up by 16 percent over the same period last year. UNAMA blames use of IEDs for most of the deaths and injuries.
After about 12 years of counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan – the main purpose of which was to safeguard civilians in Afghanistan and Western countries from the menaces of terrorism – Afghan population is increasingly falling victims of roadside and suicide bombings and other sorts of insurgency. Disappointing fact is that, civilian casualties in one year have almost always been higher than the year preceding it.
More women and children became victims of the 12-year-old conflict, which is the most concerning point in the UN report. Conflict-related violence killed 106 women and injured another 241, an increase of 61 percent over 2012. Similarly, 231 children were killed and 529 injured -- a 30 percent increase from last year. This is at times when the religion of Islam emphasizes that women and children should not be harmed during wars and Taliban claims to be strict followers of Islam.
The IED tactic has proved to be deadlier for civilian than military. Despite that the insurgents never give up planting IEDs on the highways connecting Afghanistan’s province and districts to each other. The insurgent groups such as Taliban openly take responsibilities of deadly attacks where civilians are killed and yet there is sympathy for them in Karzai’s administration which has been releasing Taliban prisoners to give a push to the so-called peace process. Taliban have been using their IED tactic to target convoys of NATO and ANSF. The tactic, most of the times, takes life of civilians instead of military personnel.
Islam does not allow killing of innocent humans but Taliban have violated that for thousands of times. Yet they blow the trumpets of following Islamic codes and Shariah. Continued killing of civilians by Taliban show their real face and does much to foster hatred against them in the hearts of Afghan people.